Whether you like them fried, mashed, diced, or hashed, there’s a potato for just about everyone’s tastes. But no dish is quite as versatile and delicious as a baked potato.
Since potatoes have remained an affordable grocery staple while inflation plays with everything else, I wanted to see if I could jazz them up to turn a spud into a full meal. I tried loaded-baked potato recipes from celebrity chefs Giada de Laurentiis, Jeff Mauro, and Ree Drummond to see which I liked best.
Here’s how the flavorful spuds stacked up.
Every recipe started with a simple baked potato.
Each of the three recipes called for a russet potato, but the russets in stock in my Midwest region are very small right now. To give the recipes a fair shot, I divided the ingredients into smaller portions and dedicated two smaller potatoes to each chef’s recipe.
After cleaning the potatoes, I wrapped each one in foil and poked holes through the foil and potato skins for ventilation.
I set them all on a cookie sheet and baked them for about an hour at 400 degrees.
De Laurentiis’ baked potatoes called for sausage and sauce.
None of the recipes I chose had a short list of ingredients, but De Laurentiis’ was the simplest.
I needed extra-virgin olive oil, an onion, kosher salt, pepper, garlic, turkey sausage, marinara sauce, arugula or spinach, mascarpone, and Parmesan.
Based on my preferences, I opted for spinach and decided not to add a parsley garnish on top.
I started by softening the onion.
I chopped one small onion before adding it to a skillet with extra-virgin olive oil.
I sprinkled everything with a dash of salt and pepper and let it soften for about three minutes.
The sausage went in the pan next.
Once the onion was soft, I added the garlic and turkey sausage to the pan.
To prep the meat, I removed the casing, and once it was in the pan, I chopped it up with a spatula to make sure everything was evenly distributed.
The sausage should brown in about six to eight minutes.
I added the greens and marinara toward the end.
Whether you choose to use arugula or spinach, that goes in the pan last, along with the marinara sauce.
I watched the greens to determine when the sauce was ready to go. Once the leaves started wilting, I added the cheeses, stirred, and took the pan off the heat.
De Laurentiis’ recipe was like hearty Sunday pasta on a potato.
If you’ve ever participated in a weekend meal with an Italian family, you know how good a Sunday pasta dinner can be.
De Laurentiis reimagined family pasta nights, somehow making it lighter but equally flavorful in potato form.
The starch may be different, but the dish still had the same charm.
Drummond makes a barbecue-chicken spud.
Drummond’s version called for chicken, honey, barbecue sauce, vinegar, kosher salt, chipotle peppers in adobo, garlic, onion, vegetable oil, sour cream, shredded cheddar, and diced green onion.
I swapped the cheddar for colby jack based on my flavor preference.
The chef said to use a pressure cooker for the recipe. Since I was working on three recipes simultaneously and had limited counter space, I cooked everything on the stovetop instead.
I started by prepping the shredded chicken thighs.
Because I divided the portions, I only needed about 1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken. But I happened to have leftovers from a bone-in meal earlier in the week that did the trick. I just shredded it for this recipe.
If you don’t have time or energy to cook the meat yourself, you can always pick up a cooked chicken at the store or deli.
The chipotle pepper kicks the flavor up a notch.
Many barbecue-chicken recipes call for your favorite barbecue sauce, but Drummond also recommends adding chipotle peppers in adobo.
I was able to find a small can in the salsa aisle at my local grocery store. It made a beautiful sauce once combined with the barbecue sauce, honey, vinegar, salt, garlic, peppers, and onion.
The sauce smelled wonderful as it simmered.
Once the mixture was simmering on the stove, I removed it from the heat and added the chicken.
If you’re using a pressure cooker, the recipe said to quick-release the steam and add the sauce to your chicken.
Drummond builds her baked potato like a chicken sandwich.
I assembled the potato by adding the saucy chicken, sour cream, shredded cheese, and sliced green onions. I found it best served immediately before the sour cream had a chance to melt.
The recipe was juicy and delicious.
The peppers added a kick, but not enough to overwhelm the flavor. I also liked that the green onion added a fun crunch to each bite.
Mauro’s Reuben-inspired baked potato was involved.
Of the three recipes, Mauro’s was the most complex.
Aside from the potatoes, his Reuben-inspired recipe called for salt and pepper, pastrami, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, pickled cherry peppers, minced chives or green onions, sour cream, ketchup, pickled jalapeños, dill pickles, Dijon mustard, and garlic.
This was the only recipe that called for scraping out the potatoes.
To maximize the toppings, Mauro said to slit the top of the potato and scrape out most of the insides.
Because I used smaller potatoes that didn’t hold together as well, I decided to cut them in half and scrape some of the insides out.
I needed to use my broiler here.
Once I had my potato boats, I added the pastrami, sauerkraut, and a slice of cheese to each half. Then, I broiled the loaded spuds for about four minutes.
I added the sauce after the potatoes came out of the oven.
While the potatoes were broiling, I assembled my sauce, which Mauro calls “18,000 Island Dressing.”
I mixed together sour cream, ketchup, pickled jalapeños, dill pickles, Dijon mustard, garlic, and kosher salt.
The sauce made these loaded potatoes extra decadent.
Mauro’s potatoes were truly Reubens reimagined.
The sauerkraut wasn’t overbearing like it can be on the sandwich, which I liked.
Although everything together was quite rich, I think it’s a fun recipe for a once-in-a-while treat.
One potato took the cake.
De Laurentiis’ Italian-style loaded baked potato was the clear winner for me. I love that the sauce is a perfect topping for either a baked potato or a well-rounded pasta dish.
It also saved well in the fridge, so I could see this being an easy meal-prep option.
Drummond and Mauro’s recipes were both delicious, but I don’t think they’ll be staples in my repertoire. I’ll probably pull the fun recipes out when I’m entertaining or looking for something different.
Click to check out the other celebrity-chef recipes we’ve put head-to-head so far.
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